Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, May 01, 2012



REO prices have risen 5.5 percent over the last year, whereas market sales prices have fallen 2.9 percent, Clear Capital reports in its April housing data index.

Investors are snatching up REOs, fueling price gains for distressed properties. Clear Capital, which measures median price per square foot, finds that REO prices are rising at a much quicker pace than prices for non-REO sales.

“Should investor interest continue to drive the expansion of REO-to-rental programs over the next several months, there could be a significant impact on the market overall in terms of providing a rising floor to home values,” says Alex Villacorta, Clear Capital’s director of research and analytics.

Source: “Bucking Trend, REOs Show Price Gains: Clear Capital,” HousingWire (April 30, 2012)

Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, May 01, 2012



The number of assaults against real estate professionals is on the rise, with the nature of attacks becoming more violent and sometimes deadly.

Fatal injuries among real estate professionals while working on the job reached in 2010 their highest level since 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Figures from 2010 are the latest year available.

Sixty-three workplace fatalities occurred in the real estate industry category in 2010, which is a 19 percent rise over the previous year. Of the 63 fatalities, 23 were homicides, according to BLS. That overall total also includes 14 deaths from falls, nine from transportation incidents, and eight from being exposed to harmful substances or environments, Inman News reports on the BLS findings.

That marks the highest level of fatalities since at least 2003 when BLS began collecting such data. The real estate industry category, as defined by BLS, includes landlords, real estate agents and brokers, and those who perform work related to real estate, such as appraisers and property managers.

Landlords appear to be the most vulnerable to attacks. Of the 23 homicides in 2010, 52 percent of the victims were landlords.

In 2010, 940 real estate and rental leasing professionals were victims of nonfatal assaults. That number has steadily risen over the last few years, up from 620 in 2009 and 170 in 2008.

Inman News, in its analysis of the findings, discovered that workplace fatalities among real estate professionals were at their lowest point during 2005, the height of the housing boom. In 2005, 39 fatalities were recorded. The number has been on the rise ever since, particularly in the categories of “assaults and violent acts” caused by others, self-inflicted injury, and animal attacks.

Source: “Assaults, Murders of Real Estate Professionals on the Rise,” Inman News (April 30, 2012)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The share of privately owned U.S. homes fell to a 15-year low in the first quarter, government data showed on Monday, suggesting that falling house prices are discouraging Americans from owning homes.

The homeownership rate slipped to 65.4 percent, the lowest level since the first quarter of 1997, the Commerce Department said. The rate was at 66.0 percent in the fourth quarter.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home prices dropped in February in most major U.S. cities for a sixth straight month, a sign that modest sales gains haven't been enough to boost prices.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index shows that prices dropped in February from January in 16 of the 20 cities it tracks.
The steepest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Cleveland. Prices rose in Phoenix, San Diego and Miami. They were unchanged in Dallas.

The declines partly reflect typical offseason sales. The month-to-month prices aren't adjusted for seasonal factors.

Still, prices fell in 15 of the 20 cities in February compared with the same month in 2011. That indicates that the housing market remains far from healthy despite the best winter for sales in five years.
The steady price declines have brought the nationwide index to its late 2002 level. Home prices have fallen 35 percent since the housing bust.

Prices in nine cities fell to their lowest levels since the housing bust. The average price in Atlanta fell 17.3 percent in February compared with a year earlier. That's the biggest annual drop in the history of the index for any city.

Still, there were some positive signs in the report: Phoenix, one of the cities hit hardest by the housing bust, has seen five straight monthly gains. And most cities are reporting smaller annual declines than in previous months.
The S&P/Case-Shiller monthly index covers half of all U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The February figures are the latest available.

Stan Humphries, chief economist for housing website Zillow.com, attributed the declines in part to heavy sales of foreclosed homes, which are usually sold at super-low prices. Foreclosures made up about one-fifth of February's sales.

"We think home sales will continue to trend upward, which ultimately will result in a slower rate of home value depreciation," Humphries said. "But any housing recovery will be dependent on job growth."
Job growth has slowed but is still occurring at faster pace than last year. Employers added an average of 212,000 jobs a month from January through March. That helped push down the unemployment rate to 8.2 percent from 9.1 percent last August.

Some recent reports suggest that the housing market is slowly improving.
January and February made up the best winter for sales of previously occupied homes in five years, when the housing crisis began. The 4.63 million annual sales pace in January was the highest since May 2010, the last month that buyers could qualify for a federal home-buying tax credit.
Builders are laying plans to construct more homes in 2012 than at any other point in past 3 1/2 years. More jobs and a better outlook among buyers could also make 2012 the first year since 2008 that construction adds to the U.S. economy.

Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, April 24, 2012



Last year, 10 percent of REALTORS® complained about receiving low-ball offers on listed homes — offers usually submitted by the buyer for 25 percent or more below the list price, according to a National Association of REALTORS® survey of its members. But that number has dropped drastically.

According to a survey this March of 4,500 agents and brokers, no REALTORS® complained about low-ball offers. The main problem nowadays: The sudden drop in inventory of for-sale homes has led to fewer homes available to sell.

For home buyers who still think they have a chance of hitting it lucky with a low-ball offer, they’re finding in many markets that their offers are more often being rejected or countered closer to the original asking price, the Los Angeles Times reports.

West Neal with Prudential Olympia in Olympia, Wash., recalls a buyer who came in recently with an offer of $150,000 for a home listed at $250,000. Eventually, they negotiated a final sales price of $230,000, but it took a lot of negotiating on the agents’ parts to get the buyer higher.

"Low-ball offers are down a lot because we're seeing more homes come on the market that are more realistically priced," Neal told the Los Angeles Times.

Source: “Low-ball Offers Decline in Some Housing Markets,” Los Angeles Times (April 22, 2012)